Month: March 2009

Differing views on that Somali terrorism hearing

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m so glad I went to the Senate Homeland Security hearing this past Wednesday, because as I read reports in publications of all sorts, I’m amused by the spin (wishful thinking or intentional deception?)  from mainstream media outlets.   Here is a prime example I came across this morning from the Chicago Tribune.

There is no evidence that radicalized Somali-American youths who have disappeared over the past two years are being trained as terrorists abroad to one day return and attack the U.S., intelligence and law enforcement officials told members of a Senate panel Wednesday.

Although worrisome, their apparent recruitment by al-Shabaab, a militant group linked to al-Qaida, is more likely to signify that many are motivated to help Somalia fight Ethiopians who invaded in 2006.

After a little discussion about the issues addressed, this reporter ends with this bit of information that suggests, well if anything happens it is our (bad America’s)  fault anyway.  We made the Somalis mad!

Some Somalis felt that the U.S. countenance of the Ethiopian invasion was retribution for the 1993 deaths of 18 U.S. soldiers, portrayed in the film “Black Hawk Down,” said Kenneth Menkhaus, a political science professor at Davidson College.

I didn’t even hear Menkhaus say this, maybe it’s in his prepared testimony, but it was certainly not a major focus of the hearing, not even a minor focus, except if you were somehow trying to grasp for reasons to blame America.

Now to VDARE!

You can expect at VDARE to get news and views that are the farthest thing from political correctness and it’s always a refreshing website to visit for that reason.   Brenda Walker writes about the hearing and the press coverage of that hearing, here.

The Chicago Tribune article I cite above is titled:  “Somali-Americans tie to U.S. plots doubted” and seeks to downplay the potentially serious nature of the issue.   Right along those lines this is what Walker said:

Another aspect to the Senate hearing was the Rorschach nature of reporting about it. CNN (above) reasonably emphasized the threat. But the Los Angeles Times headlined with a pro-Islam viewpoint: American Somali youths aren’t seen posing major risk.

Walker opened with this ‘no-holds-barred’ criticism of Chairman Lieberman:

Politicians like Sen. Joe Lieberman are maddening (but common). He is bright enough to see the danger arising from hostile Somalis residing in America, yet his lifetime immigration voting grade is D- and his recent record rates an F-.

On Wednesday, Sen. Lieberman chaired a hearing titled “Violent Islamist Extremism: al-Shabaab Recruitment in America.” The Senator’s cognitive dissonance about unfriendly immigrants was further indicated by the characterization in his opening statement of the Somalis here as “victims” of “small group of extremists who are essentially terrorizing their own community.”

Read it all!

And, if you haven’t already, read Patrick Poole’s, “What Senators didn’t hear….” published at Pajamas Media.

The New York Times is of some use after all: great tools to see immigration and diversity trends

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The New York Times web site has some fascinating interactive graphics about diversity and immigration. On this one, you can see how the ethnic/racial composition of schools has changed from 1987 to 2006. You can look up figures by state county and school district, and these are compared with national trends. The site says:

Immigration’s impact is often first seen in the classroom. The increasing diversity of the nation’s education system is the most detailed measure of where immigrants have settled in recent years. View demographic changes in more than 17,000 school districts across the nation — including your own.

The general trend is this:

Fueled by the latest wave of immigration, enrollment of Hispanic and Asian students in American schools has increased by more than 5 million since the 1990s. The increases are occurring not just in long-time immigration hotbeds, but in places as far flung as Sevier County, Arkansas to Colfax County, Nebraska, to Marion County, Oregon.

Asians increased from 5 to 6 percent; Hispanics from 13 to 21 percent over the period. Blacks and Native Americans remained the same, at 17 percent and 1 percent respectively, and whites dropped from 66 to 56 percent. This represents students, remember, so the minority figures are larger than in the general population.

On that page there is a link to this amazing map of immigration trends by nationality.  You  can run your cursor over any county and see the total population and the number of foreign-born. The counties are coded by color to show where most of the foreign-born are from.

Even better, there’s a timeline that runs from 1880 to 2000. You can select a nationality and move the pointer along the timeline to see what each census showed of that nationality’s settlement. Even this is at the county level, so you can learn, for instance, that in 1890 in Douglas County, Nebraska, there were 260 French-born people out of a total population of 158,008.

Oregon case points to immigration fraud in refugee program

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The headline is eye catching, “Father of Miss Oregon investigated on suspicion of visa fraud,” and the story that follows raises lots of questions.  See the Oregonian article here.

U.S. immigration officials are investigating the father of the reigning Miss Oregon on suspicion of visa fraud after an international war crimes tribunal reported that he had served in a military unit that slaughtered unarmed Muslims in Bosnia in 1995.

Federal prosecutors say that Serbian national Milenko Krstic, 52, father of Miss Oregon Danijela Krstic, 24, lied in 1998 when he was applying for refugee status, stating under oath that he had never served in the military.

How many other refugees lie on their form I-590?  How about all those Somalis that are believed to be in the country illegally?  Did some of those perhaps serve in some military in war torn Africa, but reported they hadn’t?

In 1998, three years after leaving the military, Krstic and his family emigrated to the United States. As part of a refugee application, he filled out an I-590 form, which requires, among other things, applicants to disclose foreign military service.

Go back to the Oregonian and read about the ins and outs of the case that has been dismissed in a lower court.  Federal prosecutors have appealed.  ICE is taking it very seriously.

If the case against Krstic proceeds and he is convicted of visa fraud, he could face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. He and his family also could be deported, immigration officials said.

“I can’t speak specifically to his case,” said Lorie Dankers, spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “But if a person receives their immigration benefit based on a family member who got theirs fraudulently, then an immigration judge may find that family members could lose that benefit as well.”

So, if refugees lied on their applications they can be jailed and fined, or they and their family can be deported.

Endnote:  Between 1983 and 2005 we resettled 168,972 refugees from the former Yugoslavia.  In records unavailable to the general public we learned that over 100,000 of those are Bosnian Muslims.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services calls for reform and more funding for refugee program

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In a letter posted on LIRS website, Ralston Deffenbaugh, LIRS President, and Annie Wilson, LIRS Executive Vice President, call for reform of the refugee resettlement program in the wake of an economic downturn that is making employment of refugees a near impossibility in many cities across the US.   I wonder if they are worrying too about whether LIRS itself, one of the top ten government refugee contractors, can survive without additional funds.

As we all know, the United States is suffering a severe economic crisis. In January the national unemployment rate reached 7.6 percent, and it continues to rise. In carrying out the LIRS ministry of service and justice we confront troubling questions: How are refugee and migrant communities being affected, and what new measures should we be taking to help? What challenges do our partners face and how can we support them? And what steps does LIRS itself need to take to ensure a sustainable future?

Although I don’t know all the early history of the refugee resettlement program as it was structured after the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980 (Kennedy, Biden, Carter), I’ve gathered that the focus and core of the program was (is) to get refugees employed quickly and thereby throw them into the water (so to speak) of society.   Welfare was to be limited.   Looks like LIRS wants that to change.

In our view the challenge of securing employment for refugees in the current environment simply highlights the gaps in a resettlement program that has become overly dependent on employment as the sole answer to successful integration. Even before the current crisis, we have seen troubling indicators that many refugees get stuck in long-term poverty, inhibited by language, trauma and isolation. These challenges have not been addressed straightforwardly, but instead have been overshadowed by the general discourse on employment.

LIRS will be focusing on lobbying for more “resources.”   I’m sure that the Obama administration that is busy wiping out earlier welfare reform in order to make more people dependent on government will be obliging them eventually.

The core of LIRS’s response to shifting patterns of refugee employment will be in the advocacy arena as we promote the need for a new resettlement model—one that is more responsive to individual situations and acknowledges the critical importance of strong social networks. We do not want to lose the strongest aspects of the employment-focused approach—in particular, rapid exposure to U.S. social systems and the dignity of work. But a new resettlement model should emphasize longer-term outcomes, build on community strengths, and address the circumstances of nonemployable refugees such as the elderly, youth and women isolated by household responsibilities.

LIRS subcontractors are asking (sensibly in my opinion) that no more refugees be sent to them for resettlement.

We also need to address strains in the public-private partnership between voluntary agencies and the federal government. LIRS is deeply concerned about our affiliate networks across the country. After a period of relative stability in our resettlement system, we are now hearing affiliates express real apprehension about their financial viability. Several are questioning their capacity to manage high-quality programs when needs are high and resources are limited. And, for the first time in our more than 18 years at LIRS, we are hearing some affiliates ask that we not send them more refugees—that they are not sure that in good conscience they can do an acceptable job of resettlement.

More welfare for refugees and more money from the taxpayer for LIRS and its subcontractors, that is what they are calling reform.

Although LIRS and our partners are doing what we can, our nation needs a stronger commitment to the straightforwardly humanitarian aspect of the program—not just to the early employment goal. And this commitment must be accompanied by adequate resources. It will be impossible for the United States to sustain—much less expand—its dedication to refugee resettlement unless the domestic resettlement system is reformed and better resourced.

I get a kick out of their choice of words here, they dare not say “welfare” or more “money” for themselves. 

We have lots of reform ideas if the law comes up for Congressional review.   As a matter of fact, I bet the Act is long overdue for reauthorization hearings.

Iraqis: Even if we are accepted we have decided not to go….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..to the US!   The word has filtered back about the economic situation in the US at a time when life in Iraq is settling down to normal and these Iraqis interviewed by the Los Angeles Times have decided why risk it, why go to America now.

Reporting from Baghdad — Raheem’s cellphone rang as we walked through a crowded market, stepping over piles of trash and weaving around slow-moving donkey carts.

He spoke to the caller in his usual low murmur, then hung up. It was a U.S. immigration official, he told me. His application for refugee status in America had been approved. The flight was nine days away. “What do you think?” he asked, as calmly as if inviting my opinion on a new shirt.

Raheem, who speaks English with poetic fluency and carries himself with the dignity of an Ivy League lecturer, already knew he would not go.

In Iraq, he owns property and has a job, and his son has a promising career in computer technology. Bombs, of course, still go off and gunfire still crackles in the streets. Neighborhood gossip is of sectarian killings and kidnappings. But the epidemic of bloodshed seems a thing of the past.

The local news, meanwhile, reports on America’s economic woes, of foreclosed homes being auctioned off for a pittance. Word filters back from Iraqis in the U.S. who are unable to find work, struggling to afford medical care, and devouring savings that once seemed everlasting.

“It used to be that going to America was a dream. No more,” said Raheem, 56, a former teacher and experienced reporter who is one of the local cast of journalists, interpreters, drivers, guards, technicians and general fix-it men and women who have kept The Times running here since the war began.

If these don’t sound like refugees to you, they aren’t, but they are eligible to enter the US as refugees thanks to the bill Senator (send them to Hyannisport) Kennedy snuck into a defense appropriation bill in late 2007.

Raheem and I have had countless conversations on this topic since last summer, after the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act made it possible for Iraqis who worked for U.S.-based media, aid agencies and the U.S. government and its contractors to receive special consideration as refugees.

Read the whole article about other Iraqis who have made the same decision as Raheem.   In fact, it sounds like things are better in Iraq then they are for the unemployed and unhappy refugees we have plunked down in 17  US states.

Even with unemployment in Iraq officially at 18% — far higher than in America — Iraqis are eligible for monthly food rations no matter what their income. In a society where bank loans and credit cards are virtually unheard of, most people own their homes outright. And many Iraqis are flush with cash after years of having little to spend money on.

As Iraqis’ earnings grew, the violence around them continued a steady drip downward.

Looks like all you resettlement folks can now focus on taking care of the truly persecuted Christian Iraqi refugees.  

 For everything you need to know about Iraqi refugees, see our previous 335 posts on the topic here.